Friday After Ash Wednesday: Matthew 4 (18-25)

Blessings, Duffy, and thank you so much for your wise and encouraging words in response to my blog post yesterday!

Our Gospel reading today is Matthew 4, with a focus on verses 18-25. Tomorrow, N.T. Wright will take us back to the Temptation in the Wilderness, verses 1-11. Perhaps Wright reversed the order so that the call of the four fishermen would fall on a Friday, traditionally associated with fish during Lent.

The Sun entered Pisces, the sign of the fish, exactly on Ash Wednesday this year. 

According to Gemini, "the association of the sign of Pisces with the age of the Christian Church began in the early 2nd century (around A.D. 100 - 200), closely tied to the emergence of the Ichthys (fish) symbol. Early Christians adopted the fish symbol to represent Jesus, and by association with the beginning of the Piscean astrological age, it signified the start of the Christian era."

There is one more connection I will point out. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess associated with Friday, is one of the two fish symbolized by the sign of Pisces. The other fish is Eros, her son.

What could this mean in relation to the recruitment of Peter and Andrew by Jesus? Gemini puts it this way:

"While Venus/Aphrodite used the fish form to protect herself and the personification of desire (Eros), Jesus called Simon and Andrew to leave their nets to 'fish for men'. This shifted the focus from biological multiplication to the 'multiplication of souls' for the Kingdom of God."

"Theologians often distinguish between Eros (desire that seeks to possess) and Agape (divine, self-sacrificing love). By calling the fishermen to a life of celibate devotion, the 'erotic' pull toward the world was redirected toward an intimate, non-sexual union with the Divine."

"By recruiting fishermen to be the foundation of the Church, the narrative effectively 'hooked' the existing pagan symbolism of the fish - associated with the goddess of love - and re-anchored it in the concept of divine sacrifice and universal compassion."

Shalom.